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Manufacturing operations software at English show

Aegis Software will showcase the fourt major release of its Version 7 Manufacturing Operations Software, known as R4 at Southern Manufacturing 2010 at Farnborough (GB - 10/11 Feb 2010). The system has been officially released to the Aegis customer base for deployment immediately following Productronica 2009 exhibition in Munich (D).
Aegis MOS OverviewAegis’ Manufacturing Operations System (MOS) software offers a holistic solution for manufacturing information environments that seamlessly integrates into a company’s overall enterprise solution. From process planning through to final analytics and advanced vertical traceability, Aegis MOS products provide the speed, control, and visibility today’s manufacturers need for a wide variety of markets and applications.

R4 builds upon the success of the Version 7 manufacturing operations system that has been delivering unmatched speed, control and visibility to factories worldwide for more than three years.

Key updates in R4 include:

• The Next Evolution of the Class-Defining Version 7 MOS System: R4 incorporates hundreds of customer-driven enhancements to the Aegis Manufacturing Operations System. Enhancements spanning the process planning and launch engine, paperless delivery, product tracking, quality collection and repair, dashboards, and analytics areas of the system. In particular, R4 adds a fully redesigned shop floor materials control interface. Aegis has also added many real-time xLink data collection adapters, further advancing its plug-and-play connectivity to assembly, process, inspection, and test assets.

• A Shop Floor Materials Control System You Design Yourself: Version 7 revolutionized factory software by enabling customers to build their own reports, analyses, and dashboards without any customization or costs. R4 extends this 'user-customization' advantage to shop floor materials verification. Every manufacturer has strong opinions about how best to control shop floor materials, how to setup machines, etc. R4 empowers customers to design the materials setup strategy and tactics their web-based shop floor interface will employ using a simple graphical interface. R4 users have the power to define exactly how the system guides operators, reacts to conditions, and the level of control it enforces. A total step forward as compared to any other setup verification tool on the market. R4 is the only system empowering you to decide how every process will be guided and verified to ensure the right material, is in the right location, for the right product.

• Dispatch-Side, Job-Level Traceability: R4 adds a new type of traceability to the perfect accuracy of Aegis consumption-side traceability functions, called 'Job Level' traceability. R4 provides a kit verification process and assists dispatch to the floor, providing 'Job Level' traceability where perfect unit-level traceability is not desired. In addition to simplified traceability at a broad level, the technology assists operators in predicting the unit volume that can be produced for a given kit in real time as it is scanned for dispatch, guides the splitting of bags, reels, and sticks, etc.

• Expanded Box-Build Capability: R4 provides enhanced support for infinitely nested box build assemblies, and enhanced mechanical CAD support within the paperless, trace, and tracking capabilities of the system.

• Expanded Dashboard and Reporting Capabilities: R4 improves upon the already unmatched real-time dashboard and report creation systems from Aegis, iMonitor and Data Miner.

• Automate Your Factory WhiteBoard: Every factory has the whiteboard covered with quality and performance reports. A board that takes many man hours to create each day or week, and is often out of date. With R4, this entire board can be automated and customized to each factory without need for customization costs or IT assistance. Users may now create a single report template utilizing multiple data sources to create one comprehensive report utilizing all the data from different data sources in a single workbook.

• Total Vertical Traceability: R4 enables traceability reporting from a top level serial ID on a box build assembly down and through any number of subassemblies and onto the individual components within mechanical and/or electronics assemblies.

• In-Process DPMO: Beyond its fully automatic job and station-level DPMO, R4
now delivers the only viable means to monitor 'In Process DPMO' in real-time. The new solution supports nonconformance 'charge backs' to root cause, to drive real process analysis by the root source of quality problems, rather than only the location at which they were identified.

• Enhanced Yield and DPMO Outputs: The Yield and DPMO data sources also include a"Group By" function of "Time", "Product" and "Location" and the product-centric nature of the data source will be removed. This capability allows end users to now view Yield and DPMO data independent of a specific product.

• Job Scheduling: R4 adds categorization and ranks to jobs that are on the build horizon, providing shop floor personnel with guidance to their daily build sequence. Job planners may re-categorize and re-order jobs based on its readiness or urgency through the browser interface, by importing an updated job list directly into the system, or through API integration to ERP or scheduling systems in place within the enterprise.

The explosive success of the Aegis iMonitor and Data Miner systems for real-time dashboards and reporting drove the addition of many new dashboard gauges, charts, and other active elements, as well as new Data Miner sources. Real-time predictive materials usage, job completion, OEE, tooling life monitoring, expiration etc. has all been added. R4 has greater 'out of box' dashboard and reporting capability than any system on the market, and as with all Aegis outputs, costs and customization are not required to get the information you need-just click, drag and drop.